Zion, not wind, best electricity source
The Lake County Zoning Commissioners met on Monday, April 26, to consider rules governing the siting and operation of wind energy facilities in unincorporated areas of Lake County. I attended the meeting and also had a chance to address the zoning commissioners. The impetus for the public hearing was a proposal I first heard about back in March concerning a Sexton Wind Farm Commercial Project to place ten turbines on Russell Road just west of the Tri-State Tollway, with turbines that could reach the height of 450 feet (The Sky Trek Tower at Six Flags in Gurnee stands at 328 feet high.). Upon reading the March news article, alarm bells went off in my mind. What about the Dual Zion Nuclear Facility that was prematurely shuttered in 1998 by its owner Exelon? How well I remember that distressing incident. Although Exelon claimed that it had mothballed the Zion plant for "economic" reasons, no detailed explanation has ever been forthcoming. At the same time there was an untrue and nasty rumor which accused the Zion nuclear facility of discharging nuclear waste into Lake Michigan. It is rather curious that the two dual Zion nuclear plant licenses are not even due to expire until 2011, given that license extensions are routinely granted for an additional 20 to 30 years by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Further, in 2007 Exelon reportedly estimated that Zion could be restarted for $1.5 to $2 billion, which is incredibly cheap when compared to building a new plant of equal size to Zion at about $14 billion. Citizens of Lake County and the news media should be asking the following questions:
• Why is Exelon refusing to reopen Zion for tons of low-cost emission-free power - 2,100 MW of it - particularly when the public has already paid for the Zion plant and the decommissioning of it?
• If Zion does not wish to operate Zion, why doesn't Zion transfer or sell the nuclear facility to someone who will operate it, rather than to permanently remove Zion's source of very cheap emission-free supply from the northern Illinois electric market?
• And what about the future of wind power, which is the flavor of the day along with solar power, in meeting energy needs?
Illinois has actually mandated that the state should produce 18 percent of its power from wind by 2025! Although I could list countless reasons why wind power production on a large scale is impractical, the principal motive behind investing in turbines and wind farms is not related to environmental benefits, but to the very huge profits due to generous government and state tax breaks and subsidies to invest in wind. Additionally, in most cases wind power can't be stored, mandating that reliable 100 percent backup is needed for the turbines when the wind doesn't blow, and wind farms take up vast amounts of land to produce any meaningful amount of energy.
In nuclear power lies the future of this nation. Beware when you see government mandating or subsidizing a produce or service. If economical, it would be profitable and private investors would be supporting it. The 2,100 MG of energy available from the Zion nuclear plant must not be permanently removed from the northern Illinois electric market. We are never going to run this country on chicken manure, sunbeams and breezes!
Nancy J. Thorner
Lake Bluff